On Monday, September 23, several CA aspirants had started a protest against Institute of Chartered Accountant (ICAI) over alleged error in checking their copies.

Started from outside the headquarters of the ICAI CA near ITO office, now thousands of students are protesting nationwide at roughly 178 places all over India. Teachers from mumbai, pune, Kolkata and rajasthan have flown to Delhi to participate along with students. Taxation teacher MK Gupta and costing teacher RK Mehta are on hunger strike.

Also, chartered accountancy (CA) students who have been protesting against the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) demanding a re-evaluation of their answer sheets have found support from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

ICAI CA Protest: Why are CA students out on roads against ICAI

CA students ate demanding right to seek re-evaluation of answer shets, supply of the question booklet and answer papers on request, penalty for wrong evaluation of the answer-sheet, permission darken circles on OMR (optical mark recognition) sheets in examinations with pens and centralised evaluation of papers.

CA students are alleging that pencil marks get erased during the transportation and handling of answer-sheets, and that ICAI provides only copies of descriptive answers and not those of multiple choice questions (MCQs).

ICAI CA protest: Here's what the students are saying

India Today Education spoke to some of the aspirants of ICAI CA examination and what we got to hear about this institution seems shocking to us.

The institute deliberately interferes with the results in the second and third stages to suit its passing percentage, under the name of moderation, says Rahul, an aspirant.

Further to add to the problem, the evaluators wrongly check answers (even when the student's answer matches the suggested answers released by the board of studies of the ICAI) or sometimes leave answers unchecked, Rahul added.

What students want from ICAI

The students are requesting the Institute to introduce re-verification of answer sheets and right its wrongs.

According to candidates, when a candidate goes for the re-evaluation process, the institute just checks on the totalling errors.

Further, the aspirants also requests for the checking of the papers which should be done at centralized centres under supervision, and competent and up to date evaluators are appointed to do the same.

Candidates also add that ICAI should answer the e-mails dropped by them as the emails sent by students facing such problems remain largely unanswered.

Trend continues from past few years

This has been a trend for past few years. We had made similar request and planned a protest last year as well after roughly 5000 students were failed in the second list released by ICAI. We were promised that the institute would work on reforms, but despite that the same trend continued in the recent exams of June of 2019.

About ICAI CA exam

The CA course comprises of three stages of examination, CA- Foundation (entry-level), Intermediate and Final.